Thursday, November 27, 2008

A few years back an article in the Time magazine suggested that foreign languages should be taught to children as early as possible.

The American Council on Education had also sometime back, called on education decision makers to make foreign language an essential part of a college education. It was envisioned that every baccalaureate holder should be competent in a foreign language as they move into the next century.

Infact, it was somewhere around this time that the American Association of School Administrators had short listed the need of foreign languages as one of the most important subjects that the students required to thrive in the 21st century.

Even though the US regards itself as the world’s melting pot, it has very low levels of proficiency in learning a foreign language. To put it briefly, most students usually study only English, or start learning a second language, when the gaining proficiency becomes a bit too late. In other words, although there are many skills around, a secondary or a foreign language is a skill or a trait that that most people could benefit from mastering.

The importance of learning a foreign language is continuing to increase day by day. Just to quote an example - the inflow of Hispanic immigrants into the US has created a greater need for Spanish translators and interpreters.

Research shows that by studying another language, it would enhance the academic skills of students by increasing their abilities in reading, writing, and maths. It was also noted that bilingual children show that they grasp linguistic concepts such as words having several meanings faster and earlier than their monolingual counterparts. With so many different languages globally, knowing a foreign language can give a person an edge in a multilingual world.

There are many jobs today that would igirectly or directly benefit from a foreign language. In other words, although there are many skills around, a secondary or a foreign language is a skill or a trait that that most people could benefit from mastering.

However, it is to be remembered that while it is nice to know two or more languages and if one of them is not English, then you are increasingly sidetracked in a world where the official language of science is English, the language of the Internet is English, the language of pilots and aviation is English, the language of commerce is English.

So, studying a foreign language is a nice sounding development, but without the opportunity for utilization, it becomes more of a waste. In other words, if you learn a language just as a hobby or just for the sake of learning it, it does not have an use and amounts to a waste of time.

Personally, I reckon it is great to know more than one language, and if one works in some areas of the US it becomes more evident as to why it is so important to know a foreign language.

Society also profits both economically and politically, not to mention socially as well, when its citizens are able to co-relate and communicate with immigrants from other cultures.

Parents should think twice and make use of the many available opportunities and resources that have been identified for learning a foreign language

Monday, November 24, 2008

Cystic fibrosis (also known as CF, mucovoidosis, or mucoviscidosis) is a hereditary terminal disease of the lungs and pancreas marked by severe coughing and malnutrition. It affects the exocrine (mucus) glands of the lungs, liver, pancreas, and intestines, causing progressive disability due to multisystem failure.

Thick mucus production results in frequent lung infections. Diminished secretion of pancreatic enzymes is the main cause of poor growth, fatty diarrhea, and deficiency in fat-soluble vitamins.

Often, symptoms of CF appear in infancy and childhood. Meconium ileus is a typical finding in newborn babies with CF. Individuals with cystic fibrosis can be diagnosed prior to birth by genetic testing. Newborn screening tests are increasingly common and effective (although false positives may occur, and children need to be brought in for a sweat test to distinguish disease vs carrier status).

Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common life-shortening, childhood-onset inherited diseases

In the US alone, about 1 in 4,000 are born with CF. It appears to be most common among western European populations and Ashkenazi Jews. That is to say about one in twenty-two people of Mediterranean descent are carriers of one gene for CF, making it the most common genetic disease in these populations. Incidentally, Ireland has the highest rate of CF carriers in the world, about 1 in 20.

The pancreas contains the islets of Langerhans, which are responsible for making insulin, a hormone that helps regulate blood glucose. Damage of the pancreas can lead to loss of the islet cells, leading to diabetes that is unique to those with the disease. Cystic Fibrosis Related Diabetes (CFRD), as it is known as, shares characteristics that can be found in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics and is one of the principal non-pulmonary complications of CF. Vitamin D is involved in calcium and phosphorus regulation.

Poor intake of Vitamin D in the diet causes the bone disease Osteoporosis in which weakened bones are more vulnerable to fractures. Beisdes, people with CF also often develop clubbing of their fingers and toes due to the effects of chronic illness and low oxygen on their tissues.

Younger children with cystic fibrosis in the United States call their disease 65 Roses because the words are easier to pronounce. This trademarked phrase has been popularized by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Sixty-Five Roses, the book is the heart-wrenching, yet beautiful account of two sister's love for each another as one sister battles daily for her life with cystic fibrosis. It seems to be a lifetime story that leaves no emotion in a safe harbor. Her life seems to be a daily struggle, crammed with treatments, hospitalizations, false starts and faint hope, setbacks and unfulfilled dreams. She communicates well the complicated feelings that long-term illness can breed in families.

From the few pages that I have read, I can assure you is that it is told with complete honesty and with a soft conscience. Although I haven’t got down to finishing it, it appears that it surely would be one of the most moving memoirs that I may have ever read.

Readers tell me that each page is breathtaking, pulsating and leaves you wanting to never stop reading as the story is fascinating from beginning to end.

I can quite understand the support and love in a family towards the person inflicted with cystic fibrosis and highlights the complicated feelings that long-term illness can breed in families. Like in any battle they live and fight it together and learn to triumph over it in as many ways. Must truly be one helluva journey.

It was nominated as the Globe and Mail Best 100 Books of 2006

Read this book: your life will never be the same claims the Storycircle Book Review.

Now that I have it, I must get down to finishing it one of these days.

Since 1965, the term "65 Roses" has been used by children of all ages to describe their disease. But, making it easier to say does not make CF any easier to live with. The "65 Roses" story has captured the hearts and emotions of all who have heard it. The rose, appropriately the ancient symbol of love, has become a symbol of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

One of their biggest problem areas is the stomach, and toning the abs and a getting a flat tummy is one helluva task – I can tell you that from personal experience. Let me tell you it is very difficult to lose that belly fat and flatten out the abs.

Recently, a study on belly fat has indicated that is the cause for an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. To make matters worse for fat people, it also links belly fat to early death. The study says that the people with belly fat has about double the risk of dying prematurely as people with the least amount of belly fat.

Death risk increased with waist circumference, whether the participants were overweight or not.

Recently, the Flat Belly Diet was created for people who have tried everything to eliminate belly fat. It offers a solution that combines a cutting-edge nutrition plan with expert tips and advice.

The Flat Belly Diet was developed by the editor of Prevention Magazine. The Diet was inspired by findings that the consumption of monounsaturated fatty acids, commonly called MUFAs, causes the liver to more efficiently excrete fats, LDL cholesterol and other toxins from the body so that they do not form fat clusters around the mid section, which is what happens when there is no MUFAs present at meal time.

It is centered around new research that discovered that eating healthy fats (Monounsaturated Fatty Acids or MUFAs) at every meal specifically targets belly fat, the most dangerous fat because of its high correlation with heart disease.

MUFAs are a type of heart-healthy, disease-fighting, “good” fat found in foods like almonds, peanut butter, olive oil, avocado, even chocolate

MUFAs are an unsaturated fat, and have the exact opposite effect of the unhealthy saturated and trans fats you’ve heard about in the news. According to exciting new research, MUFAs can actually help you lose weight, specifically around your middle!

FlatBellyDiet.com is healthy, sustainable weight loss at your fingertips. They also offer a Flat Belly Diet Book, free-1 year membership to the Flat Belly Diet site, exclusive membership to their Success Story Club and the likelihood to see the exclusive Flat Belly Diet Videos.

They are offering 3 months of FREE membership at their online program. What have you got to lose (pardon the pun!)… Give it a try !

Friday, November 21, 2008

A family can easily and safely avoid the chemicals, preservatives, growth hormones and other harmful toxins found in almost all of today's meats and over-processed foods! If you are a meat eater and have continuously eaten meat, this might make you think.

If you project to people that they don’t abuse their car like they abuse their bodies – they would perhaps get the message a lot better !

When we eat high fat meats, low fiber processed foods, and fill our bodies with preservatives and chemicals, we're much more prone to high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and other serious health issues.

A car engine that hasn’t been tuned or isn’t getting the type of gasoline it needs simply will not run efficiently, nor "live" for as long as it was intended to do.

Hence, the human body shares the same concept with a car

And when you’re eating high fat meat, or meat that’s been fed antibiotics throughout, that’s simply not the kind of fuel the human body is intended to use!

While I do believe that vegetarianism is a healthy choice and that eating no meat or red meat could be more beneficial in combating diseases like high cholesterol and hypertension, I have my reservations. While I also respect vegetarians and their choice not to eat meat, I on the other hand do not have any religious / moral convictions about not eating meat.

Although I am partly a vegetarian, I just love my Beef Burgers and Chicken Tikka too much. But all said and done, there is a rule at home that no meat or non-vegetarian food would be cooked at home, except for eggs – so if I want to feast on something “meaty” I gotta get it from outside (and this is allowed only once/ twice a week).

Now as I said earlier, but from studies conducted it is obvious that overall, vegetarians or veggie eating people are a lot slimmer than their meat-eating counterparts. Here are my thoughts on this - I was in a relationship once with someone who was a vegetarian (a salad and fruits woman) and she never seemed to put on any weight and that was the reason she never put on any weight.

So for all practical purposes, I can call my vegetarian and I still have put on tremendous amount of weight. This goes to show that vegetarian doesn’t really mean only vegetables and fruits, but there are fats (sweets, desserts, syrups), carbohydrates (rice and others) – the list is endless. So there is no guarantee that you are gonna lose weight by just avoiding meat. Meat taken at reasonable amounts can lead to a balanced weight

Vegetarians (fruits and vegetables people) tends to be in better health than people who eat meat, and they don’t suffer from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and any other diseases which tend to be linked with being overweight.

In other words, you can eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and yet not gain any weight. This goes on to indicate that the food eaten in a vegetarian diet helps with the fat burning process. It also indicates that eating vegetables helps with insulin resistance instead of the food being stored as fat it tends to get taken up by the cells and burnt off hence no weight gain.

I guess, it would also make a compelling case for vegetarianism if it could be shown that the founder of one of the major religions (Christianity) was a vegetarian, even though the religion he founded does not actually require its adherents to practice vegetarianism.

So just for kicks, try eating vegetarian (fruits and vegetables) for a week or two. See for yourself if you feel different, more mentally acute and note any difference

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

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Monday, November 17, 2008

Turmoil rocked Heaven this morning as allegations arose that God had an affair with a former worshipper.

The scandal was begun when a 21 year old woman, known only as Mary, claimed that she had given birth to God's "only son" last week in a barn in the hamlet of Bethlehem.

Sources close to Mary claim that she "had loved God for a long time", that she was constantly talking about her relationship with God, and that she was "thrilled to have had his child."

In a press conference this morning, God issued a vehement denial, saying that "No sexual relationship existed", and that "the facts of this story will come out in time, verily".

Independent counsel Kenneth Beelzebub immediately filed a brief with the Justice department to expand his investigation to cover questions of whether any commandments may have been broken, and whether God had illegally funneled laundered money to his illegitimate child through three foreign operatives know only as the "Wise Men".

Beelzebub has issued subpoenas to several angels who are rumored to have acted as go-betweens in the affair. Critics have pointed out that these allegations have little to do with the charges that Beelzebub was originally appointed to investigate, that God had created large-scale flooding in order to cover up evidence of a failed land deal.

In recent months, Beelzebub's investigation has already been expanded to cover questions surrounding the large number of locusts that plagued God's political opponents in the last election, as well as to claims that the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah was to divert attention away from a scandal involving whether the giveaway of a parcel of public land in Promised County to a Jewish special interest group was quid pro quo for political contributions.

If these allegations prove to be true, then this could be a huge blow to God's career, much of which has been spent crusading for stricter moral standards and harsher punishments for wrongdoers. Indeed, God recently outlined a "tough-on-crime" plan consisting of a series of 10 "Commandments", which has been introduced in Congress in a bill by Rep. Moses.

Critics of the bill have pointed out that it lacks any provisions for the rehabilitation of criminals, and lawyers for the ACLU are planning to fight the "Name in Vain" Commandment as being an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

GoDaddy.com provides a one-stop shop for individuals and businesses to establish maintain and evolve an online presence. They have a vast product offering, 24/7 customer service and most of all low prices on domain, hosting services, email and much more.

Actually, I have found GoDaddy.com to be more helpful for my smaller sites. They are very easy to use, and can be reached 24/7 by phone which is a plus for any newbies.Come to think of it – which host is available 24/7 to answer to your questions via telephone?

No, it is not a robot or a dumb guy who responds but the guys from GoDaddy.com really do help you!Experienced hosting guys are a lot more useful if you know what you're doing in a more advanced level in which case you don't need their help. However, for smaller sites, it's a blessing in disguise.

To top it off, the best thing about GoDaddy.com is that their domains are very affordable, unlike other sites.

But what I wasn’t aware was the anti GoDaddy.com school of thought!

Apparently if GoDaddy.com gets a report of spam they close the domain - with no dialogue with the domain owner. Both Yaro and Mike are big guys to come out with such negativity about GoDaddy.com’s spam policy that it put me off – as I felt what they did was correct. Nonetheless, personally, I have found them to be great. They're really cheap for domain names, and I've never had any problem contacting them.

I first heard of GoDaddy.com a year ago when I was on the quest of finding a great deal in buying a domain. Fortunately, I stumbled upon GoDaddy.com. They accepted payments through PayPal and/ or credit cards. Since then, GoDaddy.com has now been serving me well for quite some time. To date, I have two domains which I bought from GoDaddy.com. Fast processing of the order and worry free service – what more do you want

So, in short,

1. They do have very high uptime and I thought it felt about right for the industry but it wasn't of the highest quality uptime but they rarely ever went down.

2. The support is good if you use skype and have skype credit. Their number is not toll free which is a big NO in the hosting industry.

3. If you make account changes like update DNS servers, update who is contact details, create a mysql database the command gets put into a queue and processed within 15 minutes. So if you need instance access to everything and instant updates you are not going to be happy.

Lastly, their prices are one of the best

So, Godaddy.com is fine from my experience with them. They are easily accessible thanks to their 24/7 telephone support. If you have an issue, just give them a call? Honestly a 24/7 web hosting company that exist today is amongst the rarest around.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The world is becoming a smaller place with so much common global interests that learning a second language has become almost a necessity. It is also very handy when you travel

With so many different languages globally, knowing a second language can give a person an edge in a multilingual world. This advantage could be used almost anywhere which includes the work area, a foreign province or a country, and least of all even in our schools.

Today there are many jobs that would benefit from a second language. In other words, it could help anyone from a taxi-driver to a grocery clerk. No matter what career you choose, if you’ve learned a second language, you’ll have a real advantage. A technician who is able to speak German and the Executive who is able to converse in Spanish or a salesman who can talk fluently in French or Chinese has the ability to interact more successfully with more people and in many more places than someone who knows only one language.

Learning a second language at an early age has a positive effect on academic growth and definitely enriches and enhances a child's mental development. In other words, it provides students with more flexibility in their thinking, sensitivity to the language, and by far a better ear for listening. It also improves the child's understanding of their native language. The advantages are so powerful and it imparts cultural stimulation and assists the child to understand and appreciate people from other countries and become increasingly aware of other cultures and traditions. Basically, it gives a child the ability to communicate with people whom they would otherwise not have the chance to know.

It also provides the base or a foundation for the language requirements in college, and last of all, it increases their chances in the global job markets, where knowing another language is a real asset. They would be able to communicate with more people and it could get them a better higher paid job.

However, a ’second language’ is a nice sounding development. But without the opportunity for utilization, it becomes more of a waste. As a language without utilization just doesn’t work, and will amount to a huge waste of time.

They say that Spanish has become the dominant language in the Miami area and it is said that over 50% of the residents are Spanish speaking. To top it all, many residents were leaving the area because they were unable to find jobs because of their inability to speak Spanish. Besides, in some areas of the city, Spanish was the only language spoken.

The government will not do anything that would possibly make English the official language. On the other hand, as Spanish speakers become the majority, would they have any motivation to learn English?

Hence, while it is nice to know two or more languages and if one of them is not English, then you are increasingly sidetracked in a world where the official language of Science is English, the language of the Internet is English, the language of Pilots and Aviation is English and the language of Commerce is English.

On a closing note, a second language can not only challenge your mind, but can also teach you empathy and consideration.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

I honestly have no idea how many times I've read this but all I know it’s been quite sometime, since I last read it. Re-reading that novel was also on my to-do list for a long time... So it was time I got down to it.

I certainly appreciate Anna Karenina and consider it to be, structurally speaking, a great novel. Maybe one of the greatest ever novels. But my first choice will always be War and Peace

The greatest novel ever written - that's the kind of thing people used to say about Anna Karenina. I wasn't sure about that. Even then, I wasn't interested in list making. But I did know that Anna Karenina the most magnificent of heroines. A lot of people who have read Anna K have felt resurrection and will never be the same person again

In short, Anna Karenina is a novel by Russian writer LEO TOLSTOY, and it was first published in serial installments from 1873-77. Due to the clash between the author and editor the novel’s first complete appearance arose in book form. Tolstoy considered this book his first true novel. The character of Anna was likely inspired, in part, by Maria Hartung (1832–1919), the elder daughter of the Russian poet PUSHKIN. Some critics called it a trifling romance of high life and others declared it as ‘flawless work of art’.

Tolstoy, for a few years he wrestled with the idea of a story of a "bad" woman -- outside the social norms, someone who would be punished for transgressing? It was only when he came to fall in love with her -- and found himself unable to think of an ending good enough for her -- that he began to reconsider her suicide along the lines of a courageous woman -- a split off part of his own personality -- torn between the hunger for stability and the desire for unconventionality. It made me wonder whether there is contemporary literature today that rises to this level of ambition

Anna is the centerpiece, the focus of his attention and he details the psychological turmoil she is going through. Her suicide seems to be result of a guilt she suffers from for flouting the convention and rules of the society. Her love and Vronsky’s too fails to keep the guilt at bay. There is an additional trauma of her being separated from her child.

But I will say this about Tolstoy, the way he portrays Anna, she almost seems to ’self-destruct’, consumed by her own ghosts. So if there was any message in it about women-who-have-extramarital-affairs will die, it was very subtle.

As you say, by contrast, her brother Stiva’s numerous flings are seen more lightheartedly. But as they say ’’that a woman in greater need for a man’s love throw themselves into the arms of the first man who, they think, will satisfy their emotional needs’’. In case of Anna it’s much more than an emotional need, though it is also one of the factors. Anna becomes insecure, she struggles with ’’morality’’ and searches frantically for a way out of the mess her life had become - she almost forgets the difference between right and wrong, and enters into state of madness and there lies the anomaly.